Reference number: CH000707
What is the difference between BIOS and CMOS?
Question:What is the difference between BIOS and CMOS?
Answer:Often the BIOS and CMOS can be confused because instructions may either indicate to enter the "BIOS Setup" or
the "CMOS Setup". Although the setup for BIOS / CMOS is
the same, the BIOS and
CMOS on the motherboard are not.
If you have already read the above BIOS and CMOS definition links
you should now know that the BIOS and CMOS are two different
components on the motherboard. The BIOS on the motherboard contains
the instructions on how the computer boots and is only modified or
updated with BIOS updates, the CMOS is powered by a CMOS battery and
contains your system settings and is modified and changed by
entering the CMOS Setup.
Although the setup is often referred to as the BIOS and CMOS
setup, we suggest you only refer to the setup as "CMOS
Setup" as it is more appropriate. Computer Hope often refers to
the setup as BIOS and CMOS Setup to help users who are looking for
one instead of the other.
Additional information:
|
